Latin — All Formats  

A landmark album from Joe Bataan – so great, that it made the entire record company change its name! The record has Joe really bursting out after his seminal Latin Soul work of the late 60s – blending Latin rhythms and American soul into a whole new style of music – one that Joe called "Salsoul", because of it's mixture of salsa and soul! The blend is fantastic, a real milestone in the NuYorican scene – and handled perfectly by Joe on every cut! There's some massive Latin funk on here, including the tracks "Latin Strut" and "Aftershower Funk", plus some straighter Latin jazz, like "Sunny Gets Blue Mambo", and a great Latin Soul cut with English vocals called "Johnny".

A killer set of percussion-heavy Latin jazz tracks – one that brings together two different generations of Latin Jazz, working here in a stripped-down groove that's totally wonderful! The album's a real stunner from the legendary late 70s run of the Latin Percussion label – the imprint started to showcase the kinds of music that best fit its wide line of instruments – played here by an amazing lineup that includes Tito Puente on timbales and vibes, Patato Valdez on congas and shekere, Eddie Martinez on piano and Fender Rhodes, Johnny Rodriguez Jr on bongo and guiro, Steve Berrios on drums, and Rene Lopez on trumpet. Rhythms are at the core of each tune – and many numbers start out in the spare style of the label's drum solo records, then warm things up with a bit of added instrumentation. There's just a bit of vocals at a few points – sung by Nancy O'Neill & Jeanette Rodriguez – and titles include "Bernie's Tune", "Latin Funk", "Tito & Patato", "The Opener", "Afro Mood", "Talking Skins", and "Martinez Blues".

By the end of the 50s, Machito was a king of the Latin scene – and had an ability to both groove hard, and lay down sophisticated arrangements that were a lot stronger than those of other throwaway cha cha cha groups. This album's one of his best from the era – and it includes lots of nice cuts, like "Cooking Cooking", "Santa Cruz", "Cathy Cha Cha Cha", "Sunny Ray", and "Rumba Ace".